


Vice Cop

by ozsaur



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: AU, Gen, Vice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-18
Updated: 2010-01-18
Packaged: 2017-10-06 10:40:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/52746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ozsaur/pseuds/ozsaur
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Jim Ellison had stayed in Vice instead of getting the transfer to Major Crime?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Vice Cop

**Author's Note:**

> This is a standalone, but I would love to expand on it at some point.
> 
> Thanks to Sen_Betas, especially Sheila and Carodee, for beta. Thanks to wyomingnot for final polish.

Reading between the lines of the bland bureaucratese, it wasn't hard to figure out that Jim was refused the transfer because Captain Harding, the bastard, had had a long talk with Captain Simon Banks. Fuming, Jim re-read the letter, crumpled it it into a tight ball and tossed it into the trash can by his desk.

"Ellison, my office!"

Harding disappeared from his doorway. Jim pretended not to have heard the man, and instead picked up a random file and started to leaf through it. A few minutes later Harding was in the doorway again.

"Ellison!"

Jim finally lifted his head, slowly dragging his eyes away from the contents of the file as if what was written there was so important he couldn't bear to turn his eyes away.

"Yeah?"

"My office! Now!"

"Yes, boss."

He knew just how much Harding hated it when Jim called him 'boss'. He also knew just how much he hated Jim. The feeling was mutual.

He dawdled at his desk a while longer, all the time watching Harding from the corner of his eye. He made a production out of shuffling the papers into a neat stack, then inserting it all into the folder. Then he carefully lined the folder up with the edge of his desk. When he decided that Harding was nearly at the stage of rupturing a blood vessel, he stood, swiped a few specks of imaginary dust from his desk and finally sauntered over to the office. As he walked through the bull pen, Jim made a note of who was smirking at his antics, who wasn't, and who was pretending not to notice anything happening at all. He entered Harding's office.

"Sit down, Ellison."

Naturally, Jim decided to stand. He folded his arms across his chest and gazed stonily at the man who had chosen to fuck with his life yet again.

"I told you to sit."

"I need to stretch my legs."

He watched in fascination as Harding flushed a painful looking magenta. Oh yeah, he was going to give this guy an aneurysm one day. Damn, if he wasn't looking forward to it.

The captain finally calmed himself enough to lean forward in his chair and steeple his fingers together. He'd probably seen that move somewhere and thought it might make him look intelligent or something.

"I understand your interview with Captain Banks didn't go very well."

Harding's show of sympathy made Jim want to grind his teeth, but he was careful not to show just how pissed he was.

"The interview went very well. But obviously, your little meeting with him went better," Harding looked flustered that Jim had figured out that he'd been telling tales out of school. "Just out of curiosity, what exactly did you tell him about me?"

Suddenly, Harding dropped the facade of concern and let a year of accumulated loathing twist his features.

"I told him the truth, Ellison. I told him that you're a hard case, you disobey orders, you're a loner who refuses to partner with anyone. You are uncooperative and you have issues with authority-- "

At this, Jim snorted and shook his head. "I don't have issues with authority. Banks has a good reputation and it would have been a pleasure to work for him. No, I have issues with toadies who only get promoted because they know whose ass to kiss and how hard to kiss it."

"You can't talk to me like that."

"Did I name names?"

Hardings mouth worked for a moment. "Get out!"

"I will, but before I do, I've got to know. Why in hell did you block my transfer? You hate my guts. This would have been the best way to get me out of your hair."

"Pure and simple. You don't deserve it. You haven't paid your dues yet, Ellison. And as long as you're here, I'll make sure you do pay them."

The leash Jim held on his fury suddenly snapped as he abruptly put his palms flat on Harding's desk and leaned forward. The chair squeaked as the captain lunged back to put distance between him and the man looming over him.

"Is that a threat, Harding?" Jim growled. He could almost hear the panicked beating of the man's heart. "I hope not. And I think you're lying anyway. Or at least not telling the whole story."

Jim narrowed his eyes as he slowly straightened up.

"I've got the highest solve rate in the department and I just got a commendation. With all the boot-licks you've got on the payroll, you have to keep anybody who can close their cases. You'd rather put up with me and my so-called 'authority issues' than lose one of the few decent cops you've got left. You can't afford to lose me."

"You've got a damn high opinion of yourself."

"True. But I'm also right."

"Get out of my office. Get back to work, Ellison."

"Sure thing, boss."

Jim sketched a mock salute before stalking out of the office. Once at his desk, he sat down and reached into one of the drawers for his handball. Turning his chair to face the wall to one side of his desk, he squeezed the handball then tossed it against the wall.

Thump, thump, thump. He knew exactly how much it drove everyone around him crazy. There had been more than a few complaints. Periodically, the ball would come up missing, but Jim never said a word. He'd simply bought a whole box of  
the balls and stashed them in the storage room in his loft. When one went missing, he brought another in.

As he got into the rhythm, he felt himself unwinding, slowly calming down. It was all becoming clear to him. He wasn't getting out of this shit-hole any time soon, so what was he going to do about it? Quit? This wouldn't be the first time he'd walked away from a career that he thought was right for him.

No, damn it! He wasn't going to quit because he had an asshole for a captain. The work he did was important, he made a difference. Deep down he knew doing his job didn't have to be this fucking hard.

He thought fleetingly of Major Crime. Things would have been different there, working with people he could respect. Captain Banks had a reputation for being hard but fair.

That was water under the bridge now. If he didn't quit, he would be stuck in Vice for the foreseeable future.

There was only one way he could stay. He'd have to turn this unit around and make it into a place where real police work got done. Currently, Vice was the garbage can of the Cascade PD, which was one of the reasons Jim and any other police officer worth his salt wanted out.

Jim bounced the ball one last time, then caught it. He rolled it around in his hands and looked speculatively around the bull pen. Yeah, there would have to be a lot of changes if he was going to stay in Vice. And he didn't doubt that he  
could do it too. It would be a challenge, something he could really sink his teeth into.

He'd start by getting rid of some of the dead weight around here. Then he'd have to bust his ass and get his promotions. And then... a smile slowly spread across his face as he looked at Harding's office. Eventually, he'd be the one in there calling the shots.

The End


End file.
